ANL May-June 2013 Issue

E D I T O R I A L

“Halalang ‘hangal’ 2013”

“Halalang ‘hangal’ 2013”.  “Halalan” is Filipino for “election”. “Hangal” is Filipino term for “silly”, or “foolish”. We feel we’ve just had a “silly election” around here. At least, that was the general perception, if not the factual goings-on.  

Let’s dig deep into details for the facts.

For one, the Commission on Elections, a government agency mandated to administer all-too-frequent elections hereabout, is quite insensitive if not altogether incompetent. Comelec rules on “Common Poster Area” and “Airtime Limits on Radio & Television” were not followed. The poll regulatory body “tried to be strict” at first but it was hypocritical as it picked on the so-called “leftist partylist” posters and ignores the rest.

At one point in a municipality in the south during the delivery of PCOS machines to the provinces days before the May 13 polls, the machines were delivered to a police station and received by policemen; not to the office of the local Commission on Elections to be received by local Comelec officials.  In some places, PCOS machines were delivered late to catch up with the official start of voting at 7:00 a.m. sharp.

When voting comes, one PCOS machine after another were reported malfunctioning from north to south including the National Capital Region. The cramming start of voting was aggravated further by inadequately and hastily trained members of the BEI [board of election inspectors] who, at one point, used the tip of an umbrella to fix up a malfunctioning PCOS machine instead of calling for a technician. Some incidents of marking pen drying up of indelible ink were likewise reported even at the early hours of voting. Pre-shaded ballots were reportedly used in a precinct or two in Pampanga province. One report says an employee of Smartmatic—owner of the PCOS machines—was caught tampering with the machine at the national canvassing centre at the Philippine International Convention Center. All these misdeeds were downplayed by Brillantes’ Comelec.

Let’s take a look at the PCOS vote count and the transmission of the figures to the National Board of Canvassers in Manila. A Philippine Daily Inquirer article describes the whole process—transmission of PCOS vote count-NBOC’s canvassing of votes-proclamation of winning solons—as “painfully slow”.

The proclamation of 12 winning senators was not only suspiciously slow but was made in a ridiculous instalment manner—six on May 16, three on the 17^th, three on the 18^th—that is one for the books; prompting former chief justice of the Supreme Court Artemio Panganiban to call such manner “premature, imprudent and illegal” in his PDI column on the day the third batch of senators were proclaimed winners. Vote count was officially ended May 25 and only then that the final list of winning senators was issued.

Acting arbitrarily, Brillantes and his commissioners even suspended the canvassing of votes for party-lists on May 14 and only resumed May 20 further delaying the overall results of the May 2013 midterm elections. Proclamation of party-list winners was also done in three instalments finally finishing it over half a month after the election proper on May 13. Worse, the Supreme Court nullified said proclamations when the high court overturned early Tuesday, May 25, the earlier decision of Brillantes’ Comelec disqualifying the Senior Citizens Party-list [and several others] due to the latter’s alleged violation of the so-called “term sharing rules” by its own party nominees.

It’s a double-whammy vindication for the elderly citizens while the recalcitrant Brillantes and his Comelec got a double-slap when the court virtually lifted the disqualification; and the senior citizens were about to grab two seats in the lower house of Congress with quite a big vote the party-list garnered even while unduly disqualified close to election day.

And a litany of election circus to sour up one’s stomach. Please see “The Burden Called Philippine Election”  on  ANL’s “Punchline” .

Comelec is a virtual “white elephant” in between elections. It shuns away attention on educating the “major actor” in every election time, the voters. The May 2013 midterm election is the second computerized polling in Philippine electoral history and yet the voters are still kept in the dark as to what is a PCOS [precinct count optical scan] machine is all about; in the same count as to what is a “source code” and its significant relation to the optical scan machine.

Information technology experts and advocates for free, honest and orderly elections assert that a “source code” is the “soul and conscience” of a PCOS machine and yet the  insolent Comelec Chief Sixto Brillantes rationalizes that the May 2010 national-presidential elections didn’t use a “source code” and it did proceed “quite efficiently”, according to him.

That’s according to Brillantes; not according to a bothered electorate. “I didn’t see any reason for these advocates-complainants to be sour-griping on the ‘source code’ which I see has no significant importance to the outcome of an election,” rants the not-so-brilliant Brillantes.

Do Brillantes’ rationalizing a clever way of signalling “mission accomplished!” to his “boss”? No, the “boss” referred to here are not the people but the one hypocrite asshole who “muses” them as his so-called “boss”.  Posturing angry and “in-the-know” more than anybody else, the apparently piqued and impatient old “cheat” threatens to sue his critics!

With the myriad of legal and technical glitches this May 2013 circus of an election incurring  over threefold the misdeeds and miscues during the first-ever automated election the country had in May 2010, even  unsuspecting voters can sense a “halalang hangal”  had just pulled the rag off under our feet.  –editorial board

N E W S L I N E

ASINGAN, Pangasinan. -  “Para que estamos en poder?” Translated: “What are we in power for?” These were the very eloquent—if not audacious—words  muttered by then senate president Jose D. Avelino in a Liberal party caucus hosted by his incumbent boss and Philippine president and party bigwig Elpidio R.  Quirino one night in January 1949 apparently to dodge away public anxiety on corruption by the president and his ilk.

Avelino’s rallying words twisted since then the otherwise decent norm in Philippine politics giving birth to the invincibility of the incumbents as the guys to beat in an electoral tussle.

Unless of course if the underdog, or challenging party, is extremely popular; or in the reverse, if the incumbent is notoriously undesirable. At times though, it is the incumbent’s machinery [organized manpower] and resources [funds and donations in cash or in kind] that shape up the tempo and dictate the election results.

 At worst, incumbents are in the position, or had the temerity and the resources to rig election results as in the case of a pint-size cheater whose dirty poll tactician is called “Garci”.

Be that as it may, Asingan’s incumbent town mayor Heidee Ganigan-Chua bagged the mayoralty post for a second term in a close contest with her erstwhile ally and Vice-Mayor Eleanor Villanueva-Viray. Another contender, Dr. Benny Robeniol, is far behind at third.

Not  a surprise victor for the vice-mayor’s post is the popular Carlos “Luis” Lopez Jr. who won by landslide garnering a vote over twice that of his opponent’s total; and almost twice that of the winning mayor’s vote.  Must be a “meaty” investment for Caloy Jr.

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan. - At the provincial level, a new political dynasty is in the making. Bagging the governorship of the big and vote-rich province of Pangasinan in Region 1 is no less than incumbent Amado T. Espino Jr., trouncing by a landslide Alaminos City mayor and former GMA cabinet secretary Hernani A. Braganza.

Governor Espino showed his clout in the province where he was alleged by his political rivals as the “jueteng lord” by winning comfortably against Braganza garnering over twice that of the latter’s total vote. Espino’s son Junel Anthony Espino won as mayor of Bugallon town replacing his father’s nemesis, outgoing town mayor Rodrigo Orduna—the guy who filed a graft case against the elder Espino at the office of the ombudsman.

Another Espino clinching a new post is the governor’s younger brother Amadeo Espino who was elected mayor of his hometown Bautista replacing yet another clan member Amado Espino III, Amado Jr.’s nephew. No wonder Braganza is no match to incumbent governor Espino’s burgeoning political clan; the former is said to be rejected on his candidacy even by the prominent Ramos-Shahani family who is a close kin of the Braganzas.

Nani Braganza ran for P-Noy’s Liberal Party while Espino bannered the Nationalist People’s Coalition/Biskeg camp backed up by NPC founding president Danding Cojuangco Jr. of the San Miguel group of companies.

 MANILA . -  Elections in the Philippines is a daily pre-occupation. While on the campaign trail, politicians are already “banging the gong” sounding off their intentions for the next election in derogatory abuse of the dictum, “early bird catches the worm”, or aptly, “early politicking notches the vote!”. So it’s no more news the elder Binay is running for the top post in 2016.

Election in a banana republic both mesmerizes and terrorizes in the lasting tradition of the 3G’s—gold, guns, goons. Election around here is a pompous entertainment with hypnotic magic as to blur the collective consciousness of the voting public on what an election must objectively address.

Close into the May 2013 midterm elections, during and in the immediate weeks after said exercise, prices of petroleum products skyrocketed seven [7] times. Tuition fees in most public and private schools from elementary to college shot up. Prices of basic commodities consistently jacked up during same period, and continuing. And the  jubilant winning traditional politicians [”trapos”] blindly lifted not a finger on said vital issues.

And when discontent on what is seen to be a fraudulent automated May 2013 election was snowballing into a wide protest, government was quick on the draw to announce a supposedly highest economic growth of 7.8% in all Asia with which critics say is another “pain killer-hoax”.

Well, your winning 12 senators according to highest votes garnered were: [1] Grace Poe [2] Loren Legarda [3] Allan Peter Cayetano [4] Chiz Ezcudero [5] Nancy Binay [6] Sonny Angara [7] Bam Aquino [8] Koko Pimentel [9] Antonio Trillanes [10] Cynthia Villar [11] JV Ejercito [12] Gringo Honasan.

Only Poe is a neophyte politician among the bunch of what could be said as “professionals” [relatively decent ones] and “trapos” [old clan-based dynasties of ‘traditional politicians’].

SOMEWHERELSE here and around the world. – DHAKA, Bangladesh. For and in behalf of the Rizal Academy Class ’68 Alumni Association, ANC deeply regrets its failure on tackling in its previous [Mar–Apr] issue re April 24 collapse of the illegally constructed 8-storey Rhana Plaza building near capital Dhaka that houses five factories wherein an estimated 1,400  Bangladeshi workers timed-in at the time of the accident perished under a mountain of rubbles. The hapless workers were doubly victimized by low pay and a fraudulently built and unsafe structure that snuffed out their precious lives. We join the working class the world over in their unified grief and protest over deplorable pay and starkly unsafe occupational conditions at work!

Back home in the Philippines, Labour Day on May this year is both sad and unfortunate for the working class wherefore wage relief has for the nth-time been negated by government amidst unrelenting price hikes on petroleum products, of basic commodities and social services like education, water and power supply, transport fares, and other basic necessities. Non-wage benefits offer were instead dangled by the P-Noy government such as scholarships and low-cost housing. Worker-families insist otherwise saying their immediate need is for wage adjustment intended for food, clothing and tuition fees for their children. Most workers say they hardly qualify for the scholarship and low-cost housing offers citing red tape and other irregularities involved.

Meanwhile, the month of May sees an intensified escalation of China’s bullying tactics in the west Philippine seas by sending early May a flotilla of 30-so-called fishing vessels around the Spratly group of islands occupied by the Philippines and about five military ships sent May 9 to Ayungin shoal which are well within the internationally recognized exclusive economic zone of the country. All these aggressive actions of China are utterly provocative and violative of international laws. China in all these cases for years show a mockery of the Philippines' diplomatic mien and its apparent weakness in both defensive and offensive capabilities. In all these times of China’s arrogance, so-called good-old friends such as the United States of America just stood by.  

Down south of Luzon in Albay province, the world-famous Mayon volcano rocked the Bicol region May 7 with the active volcano making a phreatic eruption [ash explosion] killing five [5] people—four foreign tourists and a local guide—who were incidentally up climbing the slopes of the cone-shaped mountain at the time of explosion. May 2013 proves to be a tragic month so far.

Oklahoma, USA .  Two successive tornadoes  swept Oklahoma state month of May. The first one on May 20 decimated the city of Moore, claimed two dozen lives, injured several hundreds and wasted billions of dollars in properties. The other struck May 31 along El Reno, Oklahoma, one just as strong as the first thus doubling the agony with more deaths and destruction as both twisters registered a record high five [EF5] on the “Enhanced Fujita” scale. Eight fatalities were recorded in this second incident including four storm chasers [three veterans and an amateur].

Uttarakhand, INDIA. Over here at the second most populous country on earth, June was a punishing wet period with unseasonally heavy rains triggering a series of floodwater surges down Himalayan valleys leading to over 1,000 deaths and thousands more stranded in the mountainous northern state of Uttarakhand, India. Knowledgeable observers and some authorities themselves put the blame on the proliferation of dozens of small-to-huge dam projects in northern India—both operational and under construction—as major factor in exacerbating the devastating floods. Cutting of trees, road building, and other related construction works in these dam projects were attributed as causes affecting soil stability, landslides, erosion and flooding.

 

The horrendous flooding triggered by monsoon rains which began June 16 put the Indian military and the private sector into extreme test and sacrifice as they jointly launched the largest rescue and recovery operation India had ever seen, putting into action 60 military and civilian helicopters searching for both survivors and fatalities along the treacherous Himalayan valleys and across blinding fogs and heavy downpour. Insurmountable hazard and the difficulty of the job forced a military chopper crashing into a mountain while returning base from a rescue mission of Hindu worshippers at the pilgrim centre in Kendarnath Valley. All 19 crew member aboard perished in the crash even as another rescue chopper crashed in the same area a week earlier but none was killed.  ---- correspondents:  engr. joe l. sevilla & ross c. diaz

P U N C H L I N E

The “Burden” Called “Philippine Election”

By:  Ruben M. Balino

“How can the nation recover its lost soul?” rues the famous and respected columnist Belinda Olivarez-Cunanan in her May 15 column, “Political Tidbits”, with the prestigious broadsheet, Philippine Daily Inquirer. In virtual desperation to what she considers as “pandemic” vote-buying in the just concluded May 2013 midterm elections, she too expresses alarm on the growing trend of vote-selling on the part of the voting public and the ever-growing claws of family-based political dynasties cashing in on every election.

“Massive vote-buying was the politicos’ tool to grip power, but the vote-selling may be viewed as the revenge of the masses; unfortunately, little do the poor sectors realize that peddling their votes would be a self-inflicted wound,” she warns. Realizing the root-cause of it all, she surmised: “For as long as people are mired in poverty, they’ll be prey to rapacious politicians.”

True enough. But as to who made the prey poor and prone to be victim befits another discourse. For now, let’s go back to the basics of history and try to shed some light on the title-phrase above: The “Burden Called Philippine Election”.

“Burden” as in “pabigat-sa-balikat”. Yes, these dirty “trapos” [traditional politicians] are a burden to our shoulders as voters, as taxpayers, and as a nation. This centuries-old epidemic [dirty-old traditional politics] is growing worse to a “pandemic” proportion, to use the word of Belinda Cunanan.

Glancing back at history, it’s not true—contrary to pro-Spanish/pro-American historians—that one Ferdinand Magellan “discovered” the Philippines. In the first place, this Portuguese mercenary of Spain was slain right there and then off the waters of Mactan by a “native chieftain” named Lapu-lapu; the-so-called “discoverer” of our native land not even able to set foot alive on Philippine soil!

When Magellan landed on Philippine waters, we as a “people” have already our very own socio-economic and politico-cultural structures. May mga tao na who are brave, strong and intelligent enough like Lapu-lapu. We only have paid hacks and idiots posing as “historians” like Zaide and Agoncillo who distorted history by their own greed for cash and popularity.

What’s the point!

The point is that we’re already civilized as a people at that point in time “na sinasabi nilang dumating ang isang”  Magellan. We already have the basic local government unit called “balangay” [literally meaning, “sailboat”]—transforming later into what is called “barrio” and then eventually as the “barangay” of today.

The “balangay” politics of old was corrupted by the Spaniards; then by the Americans; then by the Japanese; then by the Philippine elite themselves! So, heto na!  Meaning, dirty-old and traditional politics in the Philippines has since been the “trade and occupation” of the rich and the powerful who introduced “vote-buying” into the dirty game and burden called Philippine election.

Rich and traditional politicians shielded themselves at the corridors of power  using the 3Gs [gold-guns-goons] while creating their respective family-based political dynasties.

Marcos used martial rule to usurp power; while Cory Aquino crafted the notorious “Kamag-anak Incorporated” and the shadowy “Yellow Army” to gain foothold and consolidate power. The hard-earned “democratic space” as a consequence of the so-called “EDSA Revolt” was ultimately corrupted by no less than the elite class who themselves are the actual beneficiary of the “people’s uprising”.

So goes the vicious cycle with the poor masses of voters, taxpayers and the whole country bearing the burden as they seem to see no light at the end of the tunnel. –anl . may-june2012

--o0o--

AES Watch

Automated Election System Watch

May 18, 2013 press statement

2013 MID-TERM AUTOMATED ELECTIONS

From bad to worse: Comelec is now anointer of presumed winners

By committing more errors than those recorded in 2010; by making arbitrary and highly-irregular decisions during canvassing, and proclaiming presumed winning candidates prematurely the Commission on Elections has turned the second automated elections from bad to worse – a technology and political disaster. Aside from Comelec’s non-compliance – yet again – of the election law and the technical glitches, there was an unprecedented large-scale vote buying. Political clans are now even more entrenched with a bigger number of their members being fielded in extensive areas and perpetuating themselves in power thereafter.

In 2010, a significant number of clustered precincts in both provinces and cities had delayed 2transmissions of up to two days; as of May 17 or four days after this year’s election, 18,187 clustered precincts or 23% of the total number failed to transmit election returns affecting if not potentially disenfranchising 8.6M voters. Aside from demolishing the much-hyped “speed” of automation, the transmission delays opened the whole system to data manipulation and election rigging. More than 50% of 1,173 incidents based on verified PARTIAL monitoring results of AES Watch were PCOS-related (911 clustered precincts) – from initialization errors, machine breakdown to hardware problems and ballot rejection. A total of 1,432 monitored clustered precincts (1.84% of total CPs) from all over the country had either PCOS or transmission problems. This is equivalent to 1.432M compromised votes.

Compared to 2010, there are more data discrepancies as well as open and brazen possible manipulation of election data at the stage of canvassing and consolidation. For example: the ultra-fast and inflated PPCRV count caused by program error, the highly-suspicious intervention of Smartmatic technicians in fixing the program and deletion of an ER file, the 44-hour lull at 69% of ERs, and the absence of RMA results five days after election.

While in 2010 Comelec’s non-compliance of major election law provisions and ToR happened largely before the polls, today not only were these violations (e.g., absence of independent source code review) repeated but we are witness as well to arbitrary and highly-questionable post-election decisions such as proclaiming “winning” senatorial candidates based only on 20% of canvassed election results. This is compounded by the latest decision to transport un-transmitted CF cards direct to the NBOC thus bypassing the legal ladderized canvassing – a procedure that is also prone to human tampering. All these raise the issue whether Comelec is not only short-cutting the process but is also dictating the results of the election in violation of the people’s right of suffrage. Comelec has leaped beyond what it is supposed to do – to administer the elections and protect the people’s sovereign voice; now it has become the anointer for who deserves to win.

These problems became manifest in the mid-term elections especially because of Comelec’s repeated non-compliance to what the law requires and its disabling of all major security and integrity features as well as safeguards: a valid license to operate a foreign-provided software; a source code and its independent review by the people through political parties and NGOs 6 months to 1 year before election; voter-friendly, transparency and verifiability feature; a valid digital signature; non-WORM (write once, read many) CF memory devices, independent testing of PCOS machines for trustworthiness and accuracy, reliable mock elections and FTS, and effective random manual audit (RMA).

Given these deficiencies, AES Watch had weeks before election called for a full, 100% parallel manual counting of votes cast as the remaining compensating mechanism for establishing the accuracy and credibility of the elections. Like all other proposals by the CAC and other election stakeholders, this one was also completely ignored by the Comelec.

It is for these reasons that we also declared that Comelec is the one creating the conditions toward casting doubts on the legitimacy of the elections and triggering a public clamour to demand a failure of election.

The May 2013 elections was a mockery of the poll automation law, a serious technological and political disaster, a grave violation of voters’ rights to have their votes counted according to law and with accuracy.  Just like in 2010, the implementation of the second automated election cannot pass the standards of the IT industry.

How can the elections be credible when it is conducted by a most un-transparent Comelec led by an incredibly insensitive chairman who is prone to arbitrary decisions and abuse of authority? A defenseless electorate has been subjected to the whims and caprices of a powerful triumvirate of the Comelec-Smartmatic-PPCRV leadership which tries time and again to cover up and justify for the serious glitches and non-compliance of basic and major security requirements to make poll automation work well for the people and the integrity of the election process. What happened in 2013 polls poses a serious breach of security, transparency and integrity. 

Modern technology has been enacted as the instrument for exercising the people’s right to vote, of deciding who are the winners upon whom the authority to govern is vested. Let us remember that the modern election system has been a 20-year project replete with legal, political, and financial controversies. At the rate Comelec is implementing it reveals that automated polls are a far cry from what was envisioned by its authors – that it would modernize the election process.

[AES Watch is a broad citizens’ election watchdog comprising of 40 organizations, institutions, NGOs, IT professionals, researchers, and academics. Launched in January 2010, it monitored and documented the 2010 and 2013 automated elections.]  --editor

F E  A  T  U  R  E

5 facts: Why forests matter for food security

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Mon, 13 May 2013 11:15 AM

Author: Thomson Reuters Foundation

 

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L  I  T  E  R  A  R  Y

Dakilang INA

Ikaw ang nagpasan, Ikaw ang nagluwa
Katumbas ng buhay mo ang buhay ko
Oh Ina, sa sinapupunan mo linilok ang hubog ko.

Ikaw ang nag-alog ng duyan, ikaw ang naghabi
Pagkatao ko Ina, kaakibat ng iyung pag-aruga
Oh Ina, kalakip ka ng aking hininga.

Ikaw ang gumabay, ikaw ang umagapay
Kabuuan ko Ina’y sumibol sa iyung ligaya’t pasakit
Oh Ina, luwalhati ko’y dampi ng pag-ibig mo.

Ikaw ang luha, pawis at dugo sa pag-usbong ko
Hinugot ako sa iyung pintig at hininga
Oh Ina, pag-usli ko’y mula sa iyu, kalakip ng buhay mo.

Ikaw ang bantayog ng buhay, Ikaw ang pinagmulan
Pasakit ko’y hikbi mo, kapahamakan ko’y kamatayan mo
Oh Ina, Ikaw ay dakila, karapat-dapat itingala.

Ikaw ay nangamatay, ikaw nangabuhay, Oh Ina
Upang ako’y mabuhay sa mundong ibabaw
Oh Ina, Ikaw ang buhay, ang mundo sa iyu’y nakasalalay!


--Delmar Topinio Taclibon

May 12, 2013, “Araw ng mga INA”

--o0o—

Halalang 'hangal' 2013

'Dun po sa amin, bansa naming ‘Pinas',
uso ang 'trapo', dinastiya at ‘cash’!
Lintik! Ang pangako'y namumulaklak; 
pusturang dakila’t layuni'y busilak!
Buking na hangal, nagbabalat-sibuyas;
makasarili't dorobo, umaastang banal!

Ilantad-itakwil ang mga 'herodes',
pabaya sa bayan, mga taksil at switik!
Matuto sa nakalipas, sa  pagkatalisod;
hamon ng ngayo’y huwag mangudngod!
Sa halalang ito't marami pang kasunod,
imulat ang sarili't kumilos-magbuklod!

-- “ka bencio” . 13mayo'13

--o0o--

  

‘Kasa mo, ‘Tay!  ‘Kundi sa ‘yo, walang Mother’s Day… He! He!  Joke lang, ‘Nay… Sa totoo lang,  kung walang Nanay,  walang katikas-tikas  si Tatay!  Batsi na ‘Tol!  Happy Father’s Day!  16 June 2013, “Araw ng mga Ama”

E  D I T O R I A L     B  O A R D

MEMBERS:  Rudy D. Antonio [Canada Correspondent];  Engr. Silver Casilla  &  RN Merly Grospe-Mayo [U.S. Correspondents];  Ronilo R. Corpuz [Vienna Correspondent];  Fely Dumaguing-Malgapo [Milan Correspondent];  Engr. Joe  L. Sevilla [Asingan Correspondent];  Col. Lalin Layos-Pascual;  Ross C. Diaz;  Engr. Lorie  dG.  Estrada;  CPA Rod A. Layco;  Wena Agaton-Balino [Photo & Lay-out Artist];  Ruben “Bencio” Balino [ Editor-In-Chief].